News Article

SIL research presented at recent international conferences

(September 2011) SIL linguists have presented their research at recent conferences. The various topics focused on dialectology, African languages in general and the languages of Chad, specifically.

Methods in Dialectology 14

The 14th Methods in Dialectology conference was held 2-6 August at the University of Western Ontario. This year’s conference focused on “Transitions,” a unifying theme for a number of topics of interest to dialectologists. In a special one-day workshop entitled, “Dialect Standardization: Approaches and Main Issues,” four SIL linguists presented research related to different aspects of writing system standardization:

All four of the SIL presentations pointed to the importance of considering social as well as linguistic factors in decisions about writing systems. Clifton observed, “A recurring theme of the workshop was that orthography decisions need to be made by the community.”

CALL 2011: the 41st Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics

The Department of African Languages and Cultures at the University of Leiden hosted the 41st Colloquium on African Linguistics (CALL 2011). The event took place at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics in the Netherlands on 29-31 August. Four SIL linguists presented research at the conference:

6th Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages

The 6th Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages (BICCL) took place 22-23 September. The conference was hosted by LLACAN (Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique Noire). Two SIL linguists were among the scholars who presented their research: